Managing Admin Rule Profiles to Staff Management in Appraisal Scope®

Because order details are used as parameters to construct Admin Rule Profiles, these rule profiles lend themselves to a number of management applications. An AMC can use rule profiles to help sort through which of the tasks their staff users should be taking ownership of, and to provide dashboard filters that can help staff users to view only the information they need.

There are three conceptual areas of focus that can help an AMC to better relate the abstract Admin Rule Profiles to real-world business objectives:

• Understand the relationship between staff users and Admin Rule Profiles. Admin Rule Profiles can be assigned to staff users, or they can be used to give staff users a view into what’s happening with certain orders. When Admin Rule Profiles are assigned, they have the effect of communicating an AMC’s expectations to its staff members. When users are given view-only permission, the rule profiles act more as a filter, limiting what a user will see on their dashboard.

• Understand the relationship between a staff user’s order responsibilities and the Appraisal Scope order workflow. In some cases, a staff user might need to be assigned an order as soon as it’s placed. In other cases, an AMC might want a staff user to take over managing an order when it’s at a specific point in the order workflow. The parameters in the Process Status column of the configuration table allow specific workflow management responsibilities to be automated.

• Understand how Admin Rule Profile parameters relate to order details. The Client, Location, and Jobtype columns of an Admin Rule Profile configuration table reflect the types of details each order will carry. This allows AMCs to configure task-specific rule profiles using order details as the parameters, and to automatically assign staff users responsibility for orders based on these parameters.

The scenarios used to this point throughout this section to illustrate the various concepts discussed reflect some ways that AMCs will typically make use of Admin Rule Profiles. The following sections will make these uses more explicit.

In this scenario, our AMC has a client, TPCS, who places orders for properties in Alabama and Mississippi. The AMC has decided that they want to make two staff users responsible for all of the orders that TPCS places, but they want one staff member to be responsible for orders on properties in Alabama, and one staff member to be responsible for orders on properties in Mississippi.

They configure the following Admin Rule Profiles:

A staff user has configured each of these rule profiles to assign the orders automatically using Round Robin assignment. The AMC will now assign TPCS Profile 1 to the user they’ve designated to handle Alabama property orders, and TPCS Profile 2 to the user they’ve designated to handle Mississippi property orders.

This scenario represents a simple case. Admin Rule Profiles will generally include more and varied parameters to capture more order details. This scenario is intended to illustrate how AMCs can connect Admin Rule Profiles with the order details of any order through parameter configurations, configure Round Robin assignment through the configuration table, and then assign these rule profiles to staff users to help them efficiently take ownership of their order-related tasks.

For this second scenario, we’ll revisit the administrative assignment strategy that we discussed under Conflicting Configuration Scenario 2, but this time without the conflicting configuration. In our scenario, the AMC wants to manage all orders placed by National Trade Bank with just one group of staff users. They want to divide up the responsibilities for tasks among members of this group by workflow status. They’re going to create three different Admin Rule Profiles.

The AMC has designated that the first group of users will oversee order intake tasks. The following screenshot represents the Admin Rule Profile configuration created for this group of staff users:

The National Trade Bank Intake profile is configured so that all new orders placed by National Trade Bank will assign to staff users assigned the profile. Once the order is assigned to a single user by round robin, the same user will own the order until an appraiser has accepted assignment of the appraisal job. When the order reaches Accepted, the user who had maintained ownership is de-assigned. At the same time, the order becomes visible to all AMC staff users responsible for intake tasks until the workflow status progresses beyond Accepted.

At this point, Appraisal Scope has re-assigned that same order to another staff user. The AMC has designated a second group of staff users to oversee scheduling tasks. The following screenshot represents the Admin Rule Profile configuration created for this group of staff users:

The National Trade Bank Scheduling profile is configured so that all orders placed by National Trade Bank that have reached the Accepted status will assign to staff users assigned the profile. Once an Accepted order is assigned to a single user by round robin, the same user will own the order until an appraisal is ready for review. When the order reaches Ready for Review, the user who had maintained ownership is de-assigned. At the same time, the order becomes visible to all AMC staff users responsible for scheduling tasks until the workflow status progresses beyond Ready for Review.

At this point, Appraisal Scope has once again re-assigned that same order to another staff user. The AMC has designated a third group of staff users to oversee client delivery tasks. The following screenshot represents the Admin Rule Profile configuration created for this group of users:

The National Trade Bank Client Delivery profile is configured so that all orders placed by National Trade Bank that have reached the Inspection Complete status will assign to staff users assigned the profile. Once an Inspection Complete order is assigned to a single staff user by round robin, the same user will own the order until the client receives the report.

For our third scenario, we want to point out the filtering functionality that’s offered by Admin Rule Profiles. To illustrate how this works, we can imagine that an AMC would like to provide a staff user with what are essentially viewing privileges for orders that a particular Admin Rule Profile passes along. A staff user with the necessary privileges can set permissions for the user who will oversee these orders.

Let’s revisit the following screenshot to see how this can work:

In this case, our AMC wants to provide viewing privileges into orders that trigger TPCS Profile 1. To make this happen, a staff user will click [Permissions], select the check box next to any staff users who they want to provide view-only permission to, and then click Save.

Note: The check boxes coinciding with staff users who have super-admin privileges will be grayed out because super-admin users already have viewing permission into all Admin Rule Profiles.

Our staff user now has view-only permission for TPCS Profile 1. This permission will allow the user to use this Admin Rule Profile as a dashboard filter. When the rule profile is used in this way, the staff user will see details of the orders that this Admin Rule Profile routes through.

The staff user can use the filtering functionality of TPCS Profile 1 by selecting the profile from the Rule Profile drop-down list (Figure 2.5). When this profile has been selected, the user will see on their dashboard the staff and workflow details of only the orders that TPCS has placed for properties in Alabama. The details of all other orders will be excluded.

AMCs are able to take advantage of the filtering functionality by offering view-only privileges to as many Admin Rule Profiles and for as many users as they’d like. The staff user will control which filtered dashboard view they’d like to see by choosing the Admin Rule Profile from the drop-down list.

Figure 2.5. Detail of the main platform landing page with location of Rule Profile drop-down list highlighted.

Adding and configuring a new Admin Rule Profile

1. To add a new Admin Rule Profile to your platform-version from the Staff tab, click Admin Rule Profiles in the Staff tab menu.  

2. Click Add New Profile, enter a name for the new profile into the New Profile Name text box, and click Save.

3. Next, click the Profile Name box and choose the new profile that you just saved.

4. The Admin Rule Profile can be configured by Client, Location, Process Status, Jobtype, and Paid Status, each rule parameter occupying its own column of the Admin Rule Profile configuration table.

All new Admin Rule Profiles created this way will be available to assign moving forward in an AMC’s platform-version. Once a rule profile is saved to a platform-version, edits and modifications can be made to the profile when it’s chosen from the Profile Name list on the Admin Rule Profiles page.

An existing profile can also be deleted after it’s been chosen from the Profile Name list by clicking Delete Profile, and the name of an existing profile can be changed by clicking Edit Profile Name, typing the new name in the Edit Profile Name text field, and clicking Save.

1. To set Client parameters for a new Admin Rule Profile, click Add Company in the Client field of the Admin Rule Profile configuration table.

2. When the Select Company dialog box opens, select the check boxes associated with the companies you want to set as rule profile parameters. Click Submit when finished.

3. Proceed to the following Client parameter configuration procedures to set further Client parameters.

Tip: The Client Branch parameter should be used in instances when an AMC wants Admin Rule Profile assignees to be limited to handling orders from selected branches of a client company.

1. To choose to narrow the Client parameters in this Admin Rule Profile to apply by Branch, click [B] next to the Client parameter that you want to modify.

2. The Select Branch dialog box will open with a full list of branches associated with a client.

3. Clear the check boxes associated with any of the branches that you want to exclude as part of the Client parameter ( see the More information on Branch and Broker settings for Client parameters section, next page, for in-depth information on Branch and Broker settings for Client parameters).

4. Clicking the Check All and UnCheck All buttons will fill or clear all Branch check boxes in the dialog box. The auto add new branches check box should remain selected if a new branch should automatically be applied to the Admin Rule Profile when it’s added to a client company profile.

5. Click Submit when finished.

Tip: The Client Broker parameter may be used in instances when an AMC wants to single out specific entities that have a broker relationship with the client to trigger the rule profile, instances when the Client parameter will reflect a client company acting as Client on Report.

1. To configure the Client parameter to favor a specific broker relationship that a client company has, click [BK] next to the Client parameter.

2. The Select Broker dialog box will open with a full list of entities that have a brokering relationship with this client company.

3. Clear the check boxes associated with any of the entities you’d like to exclude as parameters in the rule profile (see the More information on Branch and Broker settings for Client parameters section, next page, for in-depth information on the Branch and Broker settings for Client parameters).

4. Clicking the Check All and UnCheck All buttons will fill or clear all Broker check boxes in the dialog box. The auto add new brokers check box should remain selected if a new broker should automatically be applied to the Admin Rule Profile when it’s added in a client company profile.

5. Click Submit when finished.

Tip: Applying Location settings by individual Client parameter should be done if no parameters are to be set in the Location column of the Admin Rule Profile configuration table, or if a custom location setting is desired that will supersede the parameters set in the Location column for a particular client company.

1. If you want to apply custom location settings to a Client parameter, click [use location rule] next to the relevant Client parameter, and the text will change to read [use custom location].

2. Then, click [L] next to [use custom location] to open the Set Custom Location dialog box.

3. Click Add State and select the check boxes associated with any states that you want to set for that specific Client parameter, then click Submit.

4. If you wish to further refine this custom location by county, click [C] next to the state name in the Set Custom Location dialog box, clear any check boxes associated with the counties that you do not want to apply within your custom location parameter, and click Submit.

5. When you’re finished setting your custom location, click x to close the Set Custom Location dialog box and return to the Admin Rule Profile configuration table.

6. If you do not want to configure a specific custom location setting by a Client parameter but you still do not want the Location parameters of your Admin Rule Profile to impact your Client parameter, click [use custom location] next to the relevant Client parameter and the text will change to read [enable all states]. This will ensure that no Location parameters will impact whether orders trigger the rule profile.

The Branch settings available for a Client parameter will reflect the number of branches that are associated with a client company profile in a platform-version. Configuring a Client parameter with a Branch setting is straightforward. Let’s look at a couple of screenshots to view how this can work.

In this screenshot, we are seeing an Admin Rule Profile where Howard Financial has been set as a Client parameter. Users should note that this screenshot shows the default configuration for the Select Branch dialog box, meaning that all check boxes will start out as checked in the Select Branch dialog box. We can also see here that Howard Financial has two branches associated with its client company profile.

What this Admin Rule Profile currently says is that any order placed by Howard Financial will satisfy the parameter sequence and trigger the rule profile. In other words, the Client parameter will work here in the same standard way any Client parameter will work if no further settings are configured for it.

Now let’s consider the following screenshot:

In this case, note that the staff user has cleared the 1st Street Branch check box. What this Admin Rule Profile says is that any order placed by client users affiliated with Howard Financial’s main branch will satisfy the parameter sequence and trigger the rule profile. Orders placed by client users affiliated with the 1st Street Branch, however, will not satisfy this parameter sequence and trigger the rule profile.  

The Broker settings associated with a Client parameter are less straightforward to understand. For the sake of conceptual clarity, let’s review what a broker is referring to in Appraisal Scope. A broker within the platform refers to an entity that has a brokering relationship with a client company on an AMC’s platform-version. Practically speaking, the broker will place an order for an appraisal on behalf of the client company that they have the brokering relationship with, and the client company will appear on the final appraisal report as the Client on Report.

The broker concept, then, is closely tied to the Client on Report concept. Recall that the broker relationships that any client company has are established in the platform through the Client on Report page of the client company profile (see the Client on Report section for more information). The Client on Report refers in Appraisal Scope to the lending entity that will appear on the final appraisal report.

In order to see how these concepts link up in Admin Rule Profiles, let’s go through some example screenshots of Admin Rule Profiles where the Company parameter is being further configured by broker, and let’s interpret everything that the Select Broker dialog box is telling us about how our Company parameter will behave in these scenarios. Let’s consider the following:

In this screenshot, we are seeing an Admin Rule Profile where Timber Bank has been set as a Client parameter. Users should note that this screenshot shows the default configuration for the Select Broker dialog box, meaning that all check boxes will start out as checked in the Select Broker dialog box. We can see here also that both Five Oaks Credit Union and Howard Financial have broker relationships with Timber Bank (see Client on Report section for more information).

What this Admin Rule Profile currently says is that any order placed by Timber Bank or for which Timber Bank will be the Client on Report will satisfy the parameter sequence and trigger the rule profile. In other words, the Client parameter will work here in the same standard way any Client parameter will work if no further settings are configured for it.

Now let’s consider the following screenshot:

Note that here the staff user has cleared the Five Oaks Credit Union check box. This Admin Rule Profile is telling us that orders placed by Timber Bank and Howard Financial for appraisals on which Timber Bank will be the Client on Report will satisfy the parameter sequence and trigger the rule profile. However, orders placed by Five Oaks Credit Union for which Timber Bank will be the Client on Report (see Figure 2.6 for an example of an order form where the Client and Client displayed on report selections match this order scenario) will not trigger the rule profile and so will not be automatically assigned to an AMC staff user.

Figure 2.6. Appraisal order form showing a scenario where the Client on Report doesn’t match the ordering client company.

And finally, let’s consider the following screenshot:

In this case, note that the staff user has cleared the Timber Bank check box. What this Admin Rule Profile says is that any order placed for an appraisal that will display Timber Bank as Client on Report but that was not placed by Timber Bank will satisfy the parameter sequence and trigger the rule profile.

To make sense of this configuration, remember that clients will often place orders for which they also serve as the Client on Report. It’s only in the case of orders placed by brokering entities that the Client on Report is different from the client placing the order. This Admin Rule Profile, then, is meant to make explicit that for orders placed by Five Oaks Credit Union or Howard Financial for which Timber Bank is the Client on Report, the parameter sequence will be satisfied and the rule profile triggered.

1. To set Location parameters for a new Admin Rule Profile, click Add State in the Location field of the Admin Rule Profile configuration table.

2. When the Select State dialog box opens, select the check boxes associated with the states that you want to serve as locational rule parameters. These states will appear in the Location column.

3. To further refine the locational parameter to specific counties, click [C], leave the check boxes associated with the counties you want included in the rule filled, and clear the check boxes associated with the counties you want to exclude from the rule.

4. Click Submit when finished.

Tip: When set, Process Status parameters will dictate that an order be assigned only when the order moves into or through the statuses that are selected. Once the order reflects a status that is not part of the configuration, assignees of the Rule Profile will no longer be assigned to the order.

1. To set Process Status parameters for a new Admin Rule Profile, click Add Status in the Process Status field of the Admin Rule Profile configuration table.

2. When the Select Status dialog box opens, select the check boxes associated with the process statuses that you want to serve as parameters.

3. Click Submit when finished.

4. Depending on the statuses that now appear in the Process Status column, further configurations are possible.

5. Clicking [round robin] beside any status will toggle this control to read [monitor only], signifying that when the configured status triggers the Rule Profile, the Monitor Only setting will apply. An order will no longer be assigned when it hits this status, then, and assignees of the Rule Profile will only be able to view the order when it’s in that status. Assignment would have to be manual.

6. In cases where Assigned is used as a Process Status parameter, clicking [designations] beside Assigned will open the Select designations dialog box. Select the check box associated with the appraiser designation you wish to apply, then click Submit.

   Tip: The appraiser designations shown in the Select designations dialog box will correspond to the Vendor Status categories, which you can configure at the global level by going to Settings > Options > Appraiser Assignment > Configure the Vendor Status categories > Configure. The Vendor Status categories created at the global level in the Appraiser Designation dialog box will provide your choices in the Select designations dialog box, which means that you can configure a Rule Profile of a type that’s selectively triggered by an order in an Assigned status only if the appraiser it has been assigned to carries the designation you’ve selected.

7. In cases where On Hold is used as a Process Status parameter, clicking [view only assigned] beside On Hold will change the text to read [view all], signifying that by this Rule Profile, assignees can view all orders in an On Hold status. When [view only assigned] is the configuration used, assignees will see only those On Hold orders that they are assigned.

8. For some statuses, [rev type] will appear as a configuration option. Click [rev type] to open the Select Revision Type dialog box. If there are any revision types that you do not want to apply to your parameter, you will clear the check boxes associated with these revision types, then click Submit.

Tip: Configuring a Rule Profile by limiting the revision types in this way will allow you to assign different revision types to different sets of staff users by Admin Rule Profile.

1. To set Jobtype parameters for a new Admin Rule Profile, click Add Jobtype in the Jobtype field of the Admin Rule Profile configuration table.

2. When the Select Jobtype dialog box opens, select the check boxes associated with the jobtypes that you want to serve as rule parameters.

3. Click Submit when finished.

4. The selected statuses will appear in the Jobtype column.

1. To set Paid Status parameters for a new Admin Rule Profile, click Add Paid Status in the Paid Status field of the Admin Rule Profile configuration table.

2. When the Select Paid Status dialog box opens, select the check box associated with the paid status that you want to serve as rule parameter.

3. Click Submit when finished.

4. The selected status will appear in the Paid Status column.

1. To assign an Admin Rule Profile to staff users from the Admin Rule Profiles page, click [Permissions].

2. When the Admin Rule Profile Permissions box opens, clear the check boxes next to any staff users that you don’t want to be able to choose this Admin Rule Profile from the Rule Profile drop-down box. The remaining staff users will be able to choose the profile from their platform-interface.

3. Click Save.

4. The staff users chosen will now be able to select the rule profile from their Rule Profile drop-down box.